Demon With Cat Eyes
by cosecant
Summary: The Akatsuki, unwittingly and unknowingly, teach a cursed girl to be human. A cute story of growth and friendship...or at least...as cute as such a story can be about a bunch of killers for hire. Rated M for violence and mature themes.
1. Introduction

There were no tears at her funeral, no reminiscences of old times, no laughter, no crowds of people, not even a single prayer, only a terrible silence. Ten people gathered there that day to stare as they placed her broken body into a ditch, an eternal smile still frozen in rigor mortis on her face. She had trusted them, believed in them, knowing that they could never return the favor. They said they didn't care, that they were not the angels she thought they were, that they were cold-blooded killers, but she never bothered to listen. She had loved and treasured them, and they, in turn, in what would later perhaps be perceived as weakness, had done the same.

Everyone knows that all happy stories must come to an end, and none know it better than the villains. Still, somehow, the smile of a condemned fool forced them to betray logic and break down their stony walls - it made the sudden departure all the more painful. It was their own fault, they admitted; they had known the inevitable outcome. But leaving that hill, not a soul regretted it, though they might claim otherwise if asked. In the end, nine didn't notice, or perhaps didn't care, that the tenth was left behind.

"I'm sorry," the man apologized, removing the orange and black swirled mask to pay respect to the body, "but it was necessary. You had to disappear. The others were becoming soft."

The figure sighed, it was pointless to talk to the dead, yet part of him was relieved by this simple confession. He stuffed a letter back into his pocket, and picked up the mask fitted it to his face, "Besides, this is for the best." He smiled, "You wouldn't have been able to handle what's coming next." The man sighed, his true personality showing one last time as his mask fell completely into place, "I'm sure you'd understand. After all, Tobi's a good boy."

With those final words he carved an epitaph. He chose his words carefully, knowing that he would never see her again:

"Shira,

An Angel among Demons"


	2. Chapter 1

~ It ~

Early morning, still too early for sunrise, it flipped into a ready and alert position, waking from its makeshift bed in the branches, and stretched. Someone had stepped on a twig. Relaxing, it forced itself to concentrate, taking care to regulate its breathing - fear and tenseness had no place in one's mindset when it came to locating any unnatural disturbance.

The month had been quiet so far, 12 days having passed since the last intruder had thought to come. He had been a rather quiet one. He didn't even notice when it sliced off his head. Hopefully this new thing would be just as uneventful. It did not enjoy screamers. Their voices made such unpleasant sounds.

It jumped from its resting spot. It did not have a secure or permanent home; it was much too dangerous to leave any trace behind. It rebound its bandanna around its head and made sure to secure its hair. It would have made more sense to cut off the long hair some time ago, but its teacher had said it made it beautiful and that women should care about their looks. It did not think it could be considered female, but it allowed itself this selfishness.

A short time later, it found the cracked twig about 50 meters away from its starting point. The sound had been clear and crisp, nice and easy to locate, but the thing that had caused the sound was not there. It looked at the ground more closely. The two things - it noticed the barest hint of a second set of footprints - had disappeared from its senses. It pushed some chakra into the palms of its hands and into the shadows of the forest. If there were things in this forest that were not supposed to be, the shadows would find them. Not many were fast enough to have retreated from the shadows' range in the short time it had been awake. Manually tracking such quick beings without jutsu would be troublesome. Tracking took time; it preferred to get these hunts over with as quickly as possible without any -

The shadows found something.

It smiled. Maybe this would be quick after all - two humanoids to the east, along one of the small trails. The villagers had probably hired another warrior or two to kill it; they had gotten very motivated recently. It supposed that was because the time of the quickening was coming. "_It is supposed to be dead_," they had cried, as if calling out to some god who cared. They needed it to be dead, for their own safety they said. It smiled a small smile - it didn't want to die yet. Maybe when the eyes ate her mind, but... It shook its head. Those thoughts had no place in the present.

Thoughts back in focus, it stalked through the darkness of the trees, wandering along the outer rims of nearby trails, scanning briefly for life. After perhaps a minute, it found the intruders - the two figures the shadows had detected were walking, both wearing straw hats and patterned black cloaks. It couldn't see the shape of the pattern due to distance and darkness.

It stopped itself, and took care to blend more thoroughly into the darkness. Something was wrong. It frowned. When anyone walked through the forest, they made more noise than just that of a twig snapping, but these intruders weren't making noise. If they were skilled enough not to make noise, then why had she awoken to the sound of a twig snapping?

It did not like the thought of such skilled people walking through the forest, it did not like that they weren't afraid, it did not like that one had a huge wrapped thing on his back while the other carried nothing, it did not like that they vaguely smelled of fish. Something was wrong. Even hunters were nervous when they walked in the forest. It growled- these intruders were dangerous…it needed to kill them. It channeled a miniscule amount of chakra into its eyes, making sure to keep it below the level of detection by normal means. Its irises freely transformed.

It crouched down, letting some metal stream from its back to silently pool in its palms. One of the targets stopped, holding a hand up to stop the other from moving. The intruder stopped. "Someone's here." he muttered.

"Do you know their location?" the other asked. The first shook his head.

It held its breath and cursed. It thought that it had hidden its chakra signature. How had they been able to detect it? It should have gone and set up traps further up the road, but it had gotten lost in thought. That was bad; underestimating the enemy even once could mean certain death or, it cringed, imprisonment. Imprisonment meant torture. Captors would break parts off of it until the eye ate it. The truth chilled its mind. That was the truth of the demon that could not be named; comrades were for people, safety and security were for people. Madness and darkness were the only things in the world left. And even the darkness was leaving - the shadows dispersed as the sun rose, which meant less cover and fewer techniques, but it could finally make out the pattern on the black cloaks of the intruders. Red clouds.

One of the intruders smirked and tilted his hat off his head. It blinked and rubbed its eyes; the intruder was blue and had gills. People weren't supposed to be blue or have gills. It checked its memories. It couldn't remember anyone who was blue and had gills. The green hair was understandable, and the mouth impressively filled with sharp pointy teeth was interesting, but blue skin? Was he a fish? Did THAT explain why they smelled of fish? Had its eyes already eaten part of its mind? The fear quickly retreating to the back of its mind. There would be pain. Nothing hurt yet. It turned its attention to the other figure, but -

"Time for some fun," the blue one laughed, reaching past his headband and the crossed out symbol engraved upon it, past the spiked bushel of green hair, and settling on the handle of the giant bandaged slab tied to his back.

At this, it readied itself for battle. If they scanned carefully it would be found; better to attack first. The non-blue one snapped his head in its direction, tilting his hat up as he did so. Black straight bangs hung over another scratched headband, complemented by oddly pale skin. The hair at his back had been gathered into a ponytail, and red eyes. Likely some kind of eye technique; it should be wary of that one.

It pounced from the trees, using its hands and feet to balance a proper landing. It was dangerous to stay in one place, better to keep moving. It stared ahead, careful not to blink. Blinking in a fight could mean death. The red-eyed one vanished, leaving only his blue companion. The blue man smirked to his comrade, now standing in the shade of the trees, where it had crouched a few seconds before. "Itachi, this one is mine. You got the last one."

The red-eyed one, Itachi, shrugged and sat himself on the branches. The blue one unwrapped the enormous slab at his back, the bandages forming a neat pile at his feet. His eyes smiled_. _It could taste the bloodlust and killing slab was, in essence, a series of metal shards all fused together at a base and connected to a handle. It would be best not to let the thing touch it. Everything about that metal monstrosity screamed _painful._ The blue one swung at it.

It molded the pool of metal with chakra to create two swords, one short, the other long, and braced for impact. Blocking the force of the initial blow drove it back a few feet. Holding the block with the longsword, it flipped the short one in its hand and aimed for its opponent's gut.

~ Kisame ~

He grinned; he already knew how to counter, tilting his sword to block the attack while still pressing down on her other sword. They jumped away from each other, stalemated, and began their next attacks. Kisame took a short moment to examine the target between attacks, circling. A girl, nineteen, and she didn't look her age. In fact, if he hadn't had information on her background, he would have assumed she was sixteen. Her face was far too round, too childlike to give off an impression of nineteen. Tufts of black hair peeked out of the faded tan bandanna wrapped tightly around her head. Dark green leggings, a dark green vest checkered with pockets, and a small pouch at her side, likely containing weapons. All were unremarkable and made to blend into the forest environment. What was really remarkable were her eyes. The irises in her grey eyes were narrowed out to points, cutting through the grey; cat eyes in a human head.

She watched his movements, her tan hands maintaining a steady grip on her swords. The swordsman was already enjoying this fight. He liked that the girl didn't seem confused by his appearance, his blue skin or gills. She wasn't terrified of his well-filed sharp teeth, or the markings under his eyes. The only thing she focused on was his feet, his sword, and his hands. Everything else was a needless distraction. It had been too long since he last met a swordsman…but these factors did not completely eliminate his ultimate disappointment with this opponent. She attacked and defended well, but had no endurance. She was a swordsman and nothing else. He sighed. "You know… I was hoping for a good fight, but this is going to be too short." He looked at the creature's transformed irises. "I mean, you guys are supposed to be strong with your demon and all, but..."

~ It ~

"So he wants to kill the demon too, does he?" It muttered the thought aloud. He was not the first who had come to rid the world of the demon with no name. But it did not have the time to reflect on such matters, it had already made the mistake of thinking too much today. It needed to push all of its concentration into blocking and countering the sword thrusts, it had no time to be distracted by thoughts. It was only a matter of time before its muscles gave way to the huge sword; even strengthened by the eye, they were not strong enough to block the blows. It ducked his next swing tumbling between them, desperate to get a hold of his shadow casted on the ground. If it could just touch that, then maybe… but, just as it was about to touch the shadow, water jumped out from the ground surrounding its strange opponent. Quickly, it pushed a foot out in front, jumping away from the water trap. The invaders were aware of its shadow techniques and had prepared safeguards. They must have been informed. The swordsman shook his finger at her. "Naughty kid, going for my shadow like that. You're lucky I set up a water trap, otherwise I'd have to think that you were trying to kill me." He let out a laugh that sounded more like a roar, his gills puffing outwards.

It didn't share his humor. Had it gotten a hold of his shadow, it had intended to let his own shadow do the work, pull him into the ground and burrow into his skull. If he was aware of its shadow techniques, perhaps it could surprise him with something else. This time, it circled the laughing man. There had to be a way to defeat him quickly - he was the better swordsman, so it couldn't expect to win a drawn out battle. And there was also that odd sword he used; if it got too close, the edges would shred it to pieces before it could even try to manipulate the structure of the metal. But perhaps it could turn that into an advantage…

It lengthened its swords, curving them at the tips. The swordsman smiled, more than a hint of the terrible bloodlust pressing down on the area present in his eyes. He took a few steps closer, beginning the first swing of a terrible combo. It tilted the curved swords and thrust them towards two of the many jagged edges on his sword. The hooks easily caught and locked onto the edges. It quickly circled him, tightening and lengthening its swords such that metal bindings were left where ever the swords passed, trapping the blue one's arms against his torso along with his mockery of a blade. It smiled, before jumping backwards, releasing its hold on the sword bindings to dodge the fireball headed in its direction.

Forced to jump out to the way, it noticed the familiar cloak hiding among the branches. It had almost forgotten in the heat of battle that the blue one had not come alone. Whirling back around as it realized its distraction, it noticed just in time as a blue blur rushed towards it. It tried to move, but was unable to react fast enough - head met stomach, shortly followed by back meeting an unforgiving tree. It choked, unable to breathe.

The blue one grimaced through the pain, his sword digging painfully into his side. He yelled at his companion, "Damn it, this one was _mine_ to fight!"

"You were taking too long." The other man, Itachi, replied as he jumped down from the branches.

Air began flowing back into its lungs, and it gasped gratefully as it breathed in the precious oxygen. The relief was short-lived. Almost instantly, the air left again as it was violently shoved back by a hand, pinning it to the tree. "And now you will free my companion."

It stared straight into his red eyes, "And if it doesn't?"

Itachi paused, puzzled by the use of the third person 'it'. Then, after forming his response, "I will make 72 hours of IT's life a living hell."

It spat, hoping to encourage this red-eyed man to kill it first. It wasn't sure about its chances, but maybe if it got lucky… "Do your worst, it's already gone to hell and back."

The man didn't say a word. He didn't even snarl; he just stared. His red iris changed from a spinning, three-dotted pattern into what looked like a pinwheel. The sky turned a chilling blood red, the surroundings a deep black, object color schemes inverted, and an alien moon now glowed darkly overhead. Worst of all, it realized it couldn't move. It was chained to a cross, and couldn't escape. The man called Itachi had appeared in this strangely disjointed world, equipped with his torture device - a plain katana, razor edged and curved. It gritted its teeth and silently swore that, no matter what happened, it would never give him the satisfaction of hearing it scream. The first sword pierced its stomach.

71 hours, 59 minutes, and 50 seconds later

By now, it had realized that none of this was real. Not just because of the surreal settings, but because otherwise it would have died from blood loss acute enough to leave it a dried out husk long ago. But the man wouldn't let it die; he would keep it conscious for every second of pain.

It shuddered and coughed up more blood. The familiar metallic taste reminded it that another sword had pierced its stomach. It had lost count around the 27th, or maybe it had willed itself to lose count. The numbers had gotten too painful to remember. It closed its eyes and tried its best not to focus on the pain. The pain was nothing, it had to keep mentally calm, there was not a man stabbing it over and over, this wasn't real. None of that mattered. The blade twisted in its stomach, as it had done many times previously. It whimpered. It had to keep strong. It had to keep up the barrier. It could feel insanity slowly marching on the gates of its frayed mind. It had to stay logical, it couldn't let the madness come, it couldn't let the curse win.

It opened its eyes to find the sky a different color, a sun, the real sun, gazing a bit over the treetops, just as it had before the nightmare. A hand released a hold on its neck. It sank to the ground holding its guts in pain, trying to stop the bleeding from wounds that weren't really there. It didn't help to know that they didn't actually exist, it hurt all the same. But the madness had stopped knocking at its brain. Safe. For stood up, using a nearby tree for support, still clutching its stomach in agony.

The man who had pinned it against the tree was gone, and apparently being scolded by his partner. "You shouldn't have used that technique!"

Itachi wiped the spit off his face.

"Her mind's shattered, you've been drained of chakra, I'm still stuck in this jutsu, and we'll have to carry her back now." The blue one groaned.

"The condition doesn't matter so long as the target is alive."

The words registered in its head - it needed to _run_. It had to get away, these people wanted the madness to eat its mind. That's what the last group had wanted. They didn't have red clouds then, but it had always known Jaggur would come back for the eye and the madness, the curse of Koruhme. They had sent new and better hunters… they… it felt the terror that it had first felt seven winters ago. _Anything_ was preferable to that.

It managed to palm a small knife in its left hand, and apologized to the only person who had cared. "Sorry, Mikoku."

~ Itachi ~

"Itachi... Aren't your victims supposed to remain unconscious?" his partner glanced over his head.

"Normally." The mental anguish should cause the target to collapse into a coma. It made it easy to carry them back.

"Well, this one's still moving, and I don't think she agrees with your plan about coming back alive."

Itachi glanced over his shoulder to see their target slowly bringing a dagger to her neck, whispering some incoherent nonsense. No, this was not allowed. Immediately, he appeared behind the poor girl, knocking the dagger from her hand with one arm and delivering a swift chop to her neck with the other. Her eyes rolled upwards and she collapsed to the floor. Logically, Itachi knew that he should have disarmed her, forced her to dispel the bindings on Kisame, and then knocked her unconscious, but the sight, just the concept, of someone attempting to commit suicide irked him greatly.

He had originally thought to spare her discomfort and terror in the journey ahead by subduing her mind completely. He was a murderer, but that didn't mean he couldn't be civil; there was no need to antagonize his victims by forcing them into a state of despair when they realized escape was impossible. But now, he hoped dimly that she would soon regain consciousness. People struggled every day, with _everything_ they had, to live for just one more day, and she had -

He let out a breath. He could not allow himself to get so emotional. Emotions would betray him. Too much was at stake. He turned to his partner, a calm look fixed on his face. "Problem solved."

Kisame sighed, shrugging his shoulders under the metal bindings. "You're carrying her," he declared.

Itachi looked back, no emotion present on his calm façade. "You got caught. You suffer the consequences."

Kisame looked at him and then down at his bindings, "And I'm supposed to carry her?"

Itachi shrugged, walking off. "You'll find a way," he carelessly threw the words over his shoulder.

"Get back here! _Hey_!"

His partner sighed, realizing it was pointless to try and convince him otherwise, and tried to find a suitable compromise, "At least help me maneuver Samehada into a better position. It kind of hurts here."

"Your prey," came the callous reply.

Kisame twitched, muttering to himself, looking down at the girl, the metal binding him, his sword trapped against him, the bandages, and then back at the girl. He struggled for some moments against the metal, but the more he pushed outward, the more the binding seemed to strengthen, and the more Samehada dug into his chest. Finally, the poor swordsman sighed, resigning himself to the complicated puzzle.


	3. Chapter 2

~ It ~

By the time it regained consciousness, it found itself being jostled up and down on some very uncomfortable surface, surrounded by the stench of fish. It opened its eyes, doing its best to ignore the stinging pain in its neck. Dazed, it watched the ground below itself pass by, trying to determine whether it was moving or simply dizzy. Probably moving.

It turned its head in an attempt to discover what propelled it, only to rediscover a series of sharp pains in its stomach. It mumbled and attempted to cushion the wounds, which were ramming right against the uncomfortable fishy surface, but stopped at an important discovery - its hands were tied behind its back. It had been captured. It froze, desperately wracking its brain for memories, clues. It remembered the forest, it remembered a fight, fire, the sky going red. It wriggled, trying to find a more comfortable position from which to piece its memories together. "She's awake," a familiar raspy voice remarked.

"So?" A nonchalant reply, and the pain flared. That one had something to do with the piercing agony. It desperately tried to calm its breathing. Panicking would only make the pain worse.

"That means that you can, I don't know, get her to undo these metal things so I can get this sword out of me?" It looked down. The blue one had not found a way to get free and was remarkably calm for someone walking around with a sword lodged in his side. The bleeding looked significant too.

It turned its head. Only one person to the left, the one with the voice that caused it to panic. It pulled together vague memories; his name was Itachi.

"But you look fabulous."

It blinked a few times. It couldn't figure out whether that was a joke or not. It sounded like one, but Itachi's face and tone didn't change.

"Next mission, I'm making you carry everything," the blue swordsman grumbled. By now it had pieced together a more complete recollection - the attempt to escape capture through death had failed, and was now reduced to riding on the uncomfortable shoulder of the blue man, carried like a sack of potatoes.

It had no right to complain. This was punishment for being caught. A human might ask for the rights of a prisoner or fair treatment, but it was not human; its father had explained this the day he took its name away. It was a demon, and demons didn't deserve names.

The blue one stopped and bent forward slightly, letting gravity do the work of dragging it off his shoulder. At least, it had somehow managed to land on its ass. Itachi moved closer, his eyes bearing down on it. Instinctually, it looked away. It had no idea what had happened earlier, but it did not want to visit that red colored world again. "So," the calm voice started, "Will you undo the bindings?"

It twitched. It could not panic. If it did not do as Itachi asked, it would go through hell again. He did not say as much, but he implied it, which was much worse. That let its imagination fill in the blanks. It had two choices - it could either free the man's bindings or die. No, worse than die. It wasn't sure its mind would retain the barrier a second time, and if that happened the panther would rise. There was no choice. It nodded, cringing away from the red eyed man's gaze. "It will undo the binding, but…" it paused and tried its best not to sound insolent, "but it needs its hands and to be close to him to call back the metal."

"Can't you- it," Itachi corrected himself, "move closer to him?"

This man did not glare at it, nor did he raise his voice, but that made him even more terrifying. It weakly shook its head. "It's not sure it can even manage to move that close… the hurt," it flinched at the memory of the red sky, "the wounds haven't been treated, and if it moves more it worries that its guts will fall out, and it won't…" it shivered remembering the chilling truth, "it won't be able to stop the panther."

~ Kisame ~

Kisame looked back in wonder. The kid who had just two days ago faced him in battle, one of the former swordsman of the mist, without any glimpse of fear in her eyes, was shivering. He looked back at his partner. Just what had Itachi done to this girl in Tsukuyomi? The girl bowed her head, still shivering before the two of them. "It's sorry. It doesn't want to be difficult. It's sorry. It understands that you want the panther. It's sorry. It doesn't mean any disrespect, and it understands that it doesn't have the right to ask anything of you and that you should beat it for its insolence, but it begs that you let the panther sleep. It doesn't want to see itself die yet."

Kisame blinked a few times. Forget what his partner had done to this kid… what had been done to this kid in general? Did she honestly expect that they were going to beat her senseless because she showed some willingness to live? They weren't exactly the best people in the world; he himself had been considering shaving away her legs to keep her from running away. Killing a person in a fight was one thing, torture for information was another, but beating a child because she said she wanted to live? That was a level of pointless sadism he wasn't willing to lower himself to.

He knew that villages hated people who had demons sealed within them. He knew for a fact that her village had several bounties on her and likely would have hailed he and Itachi as heroes for getting rid of her. After all, demons strong enough to need to be sealed are extremely dangerous, even to one such as him. He also knew that her village had gotten really desperate lately, hiring every person they could convince to take the job. But what had they done to this kid to make her _that_ terrified? He liked fear, he enjoyed it when his victims were afraid of him, but she, she was scared of something different. Something much more sinister.

"First of all," Itachi began, unshaken by the pitiful sight before him. His partner always managed to keep a cool head. "Those 'wounds' you're talking about aren't real, and your guts will not spill out." The girl continued to shake. "The torture was an illusion. Or you would be dead from blood loss. Your mind was conscious, and there will still be effects on your body, so do not consider escape."

"Second," Itachi continued his speech. Maybe the sight had garnered a reaction from his partner after all, the man never spoke this much. "We don't want or need your demon to emerge." Itachi's words finally had a visible effect; the girl stopped shaking. She carefully chose her words, still making sure to avoid eye contact with either of them. "So…" she struggled, swallowing her fear, "You just want it dead?"

"Yes."

"You don't work for a man named Jaggur?"

"No. Undo the bindings."

The girl visibly relaxed, tenseness fleeing from her body as her fear did. She nodded, "It will undo the bindings, but it does need its hands, and," she stretched her bound arms towards Kisame, "it needs to have contact with the metal. It knows that the wounds are an illusion, but it worries that the stress of moving might force it to collapse and return to unconsciousness."

Kisame nodded, eager to get Samehada off of him. He walked towards her. "I'm not going to undo the bindings," he grinned, showing off his sharp teeth, "But you can reach just fine from here." He crouched down to bring his chest before her, at the same time making hand signs. A puddle formed at her feet. "Try anything funny and the water will drag you down until you drown. Got it?"

The girl nodded. This was going to be easy.

~ It ~

It wriggled itself, turning around so that its hands would reach the swordsman. It stretched out its hands, finding the familiar cold surface. It smiled and activated its battle eye, keeping its face turned away from its captors. It allowed the metal to slip up from its palms to its wrist. This was going to be difficult.

~ Kisame ~

Kisame had never thought that watching liquid metal move up someone's arms could be so binding, so hypnotic… it was almost magnetic to watch. He barely noticed when Samehada slipped out from its painful position, barely noticed the hypnotic metal spurting out and breaking the bindings along her hands as it did so. He _did_ notice when her hands went for his shadow and tendrils pulled him down to the ground. He activated his water prison jutsu too late - she had already moved out of position, and the water didn't even touch her ankles. Having worked her magic, she ran for the woods.

~ It ~

It worked. It smiled to itself; pulsing the liquid metal to create a subtle hypnotic vibration in the flow of the metal had actually worked. It had been working on that trick for a while, but had never really gotten the technique to work reliably. Then again, it tended to kill its enemies quickly, so it had never really gotten the opportunity to practice it in the middle of combat. It kept running. Once it got to the cover of trees, it could hide, it could recover, it could strengthen its mind to deal with the illusion tricks. It would survive.

Itachi ran before it, blocking it from the safety of the forest. On instinct it kicked out, not thinking the man would be strong enough to catch its foot. It was wrong. The man's fingers twisted onto her sandals, refusing to let go. Thankfully, it could improvise.

It used its leg as a lever, lifting itself up. More nonexistent wounds ripped, and some bones cracked. It gritted its teeth together to overcome the pain as it twisted its leg, more muscles contorted, and it kicked Itachi with its free foot.

~ Itachi ~

Itachi momentarily let go of her ankle in an attempt to block her foot from hitting his head. Too late. Though his sharingan could see and predict her kick, he did not have the time to react. As a result, he went flying against a tree. Kisame screamed something, finally shaking himself free of the shadow tendrils and chasing after the target as she made her mad dash for the woods. Itachi calmly stood up, and brushed the dust off. He had known she would try to escape, but he hadn't thought that she would have the mental fortitude to muster or control chakra after experiencing Tsukuyomi. He also hadn't thought that she would have the strength to break her ankle in her current condition, or that she would have come up with something so suicidal. The girl must be desperate. Fortunately, she had also been stupid; the attempt was poorly planned. His partner would catch her momentarily, and she would be suffering from the newly self-inflicted leg wounds along with the remnants of Tsukuyomi. She would probably collapse shortly and then be powerless to escape for the rest of the journey.

He followed Kisame's and his captive's tracks. Even if she managed to take it one step further and was able to shake pursuit, she would have nowhere to run. They were well out of her territory in the forest surrounding her village. Unfortunately all of these factors would not make her any less troublesome to deal with - the target was desperate, and desperate almost invariably meant dangerous.

~ It ~

That was stupid. It ran as fast as possible, using metal to act as a rod to strengthen and straighten its broken leg. This was going to be its last chance at escape before they caught it and killed it, and it had already encountered several problems - one, it could only run for a few more minutes because of the broken bones in its leg. Two, it was exacerbating the injuries in both its leg and stomach by running. Three, the eye was beginning to give her a severe headache - if it relied on it any more, the curse would advance. Four, it had no place to hide. Five, one of them was chasing it already, and six, the ground was spinning and the world had gone blurry. Pain was seriously affecting its faculties, but with a tremendous amount of luck it might be able to find a niche where it could heal in a day or two -

As if in response to the positive thinking, something _cracked_ sickeningly, and it fell. It tried to crawl forwards, but was delayed by yet another pang of agony from its stomach. It inched itself forward some more as it bitterly reminded itself that it had gone through worse and lived.

Its body disagreed; the ground refused to stop spinning, and the pain was unbearable. It bit its lip, focusing on the lesser pain in its mouth than its leg or stomach. _Almost_ unbearable_,_ it corrected itself. It could cope. Its leg touched a rock. It twitched, biting into its lip even harder than before. It_ had_ to cope.

There were voices in the distance. It thought for a moment that it could see a person with pink hair wearing a red blob appearing from behind some trees, and then the person started to scream and point most frantically at it. The eye had no doubt eaten away some more of its sanity when it hadn't been paying attention.

Following the pink screaming person, a white blobbing thing appeared. There was some kind of mask eating his face... or maybe it had gone delirious from pain. That was okay, that was much more manageable than thinking the eye was eating away its sanity. Much more pleasant too. He was shouting something. It couldn't make out exactly what or to whom, its head was pounding, and it collapsed.

~ Kisame ~

"Damn it all," Kisame muttered, watching the situation from a hidden spot in the trees. The target just had to get _this _lucky. Then again, maybe the target had noticed other life forms and run to them. It was sometimes difficult to tell luck from skill. He may have wanted a chance to have another fight with the girl before handing her over, but another fight would cause an even longer delay; Leader would not be happy. But, before he could leap into the clearing and reclaim their prey, his partner pulled him back.

The swordsman glared at red eyes. Their target was escaping. He stopped; there had been movement in the greenery behind him. Whirling around, he noticed an enormous venus fly trap poking it's head out of the greenery. Leader must be quite annoyed with their delays to have sent out Zetsu. Still, he shivered. He didn't like the idea of returning home without the catch to an annoyed Leader. "Shouldn't we get the demon first?"

Zetsu snorted. Thankfully, he was in a decently good mood. "He wants to talk to you about the demon. It is highly recommended that you come as soon as possible." The striped head smiled, showing off his sharpened teeth.

"Besides," Itachi said, taking one last look behind him at the Konoha ninja, "We'll be late if we fight them."

Kisame sighed. Itachi, as usual, brought up a good point, but he didn't enjoy leaving the target behind.


	4. Chapter 3

~ It ~

The sun had set. The sun had been over head last it remembered. Daylight had been lost. It tried to stand, but couldn't. Someone or something had put a thing on its leg, hindering movement. Nonetheless, it tried to get up again; its captors could reappear at any moment, and it couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching it. On its fifth failed attempt to get back up, a voice finally deigned to comment from behind, "You know... it's probably best if you don't move and allow your leg to heal. That's what casts are supposed to do."

Jumping, it whirled around and found itself staring into the singular eye of what seemed to be a white haired ninja. An alarmingly close white-haired ninja. It froze, hair rising up on its neck, and quickly scrambled away. It had not expected anyone to get so close without notice. It did not want anyone near it in such a position, especially a man. Crouching down, the white haired ninja examined its defensive reaction and raised up his hand as if surrendering, "We're not going to hurt you. What I do want, however, are answers."

It eyed the man suspiciously. His white hair spiked up out of his tilted headband, covering one eye, and a mask covered most of what remained of his face and continued down his neck, leading to a green tactical vest and black pants - an outfit suitable for camouflage that retained practicality. He didn't emit the bloodlust of a hunter, but his guard was up. A few presences were hiding in the bushes, and one was doing an awful job of trying to remain stealthy. It decided to comply and answer his questions; he had the upper hand with numbers and it was currently immobilized. It could not even activate its eye for an additional advantage; the curse would progress and eat its mind, perhaps later given enough rest, but it could hardly afford to be discourteous to its captor. "That depends on your questions."

He laughed, an odd-sounding, empty action, "True enough, true me, who are you? How were you still moving with a leg broken in three places, and perhaps most importantly," the white haired man's eyes sharpened, "how did you break your leg to begin with?"

It paused, taking the time to organize an optimal response; it had to be polite without adding any excess information. "It can't tell you its name, it has much experience dealing with pain, it broke its leg trying to escape from some kidnappers, and after the leg broke it still had to escape. Now," it steadily stared at the ninja, "could you please tell the three hidden presences to come out? It would prefer that if it were to be spied on it would be able to see whatever is spying on it."

He smiled through his mask, an action that temporarily masked his dangerous aura, "I was wondering if you'd notice. I hope you excuse them. They're curious. You know how children are." It frowned. Why did he think it knew anything about children? Taking note of its frown, he addressed those hiding in the bushes and trees, "If you're not going to sleep, you might as well come out. You might make our guest paranoid otherwise."

It arched its eyebrow at his word choice. Guest? Prisoner would be more accurate. It couldn't move with this constricting cast, and that was probably the point. He was clever, disguising its imprisonment as a cast to help it heal, but it supposed it shouldn't expect less from a ninja. Their headbands marked them as ninja of Konoha - the village hidden in the leaves. It didn't know much about that village, but it did its best to remember as much as possible.

The three presences, children it supposed, emerged from their hiding places. One was a pink haired girl, likely the pink blob it had seen previously, the red blob accompanying her resolving itself into a red dress. A black-haired boy came next, wearing a blue turtleneck shirt, white shorts, bandaged shins, and blue ninja sandals. Last was a painfully blonde-haired boy wearing a bright orange jumpsuit. All three had kunai pouches strapped to their right thighs, and none were dressed for camouflage. The three new arrivals looked relatively the same age, and they wore the same headband as the white haired one, so it had probably been captured by a squad. It didn't know exactly where it was, but if it was near Konoha, then it was decently far from home. The arrivals took their places near the white haired ninja crouching near it.

The white haired one spoke once again, "I've already told you that we aren't going to hurt you. So how about you give us information that we can use to help you? Maybe that way we can find some way to keep you safe from kidnappers. Okay?"

Seeing no alternative, it nodded.

The black haired boy began the interrogation, "Why are you calling yourself it?"

It much preferred this interrogation technique. It was straightforward and to the point. It glared back at the boy, "It doesn't deserve a name, so it cannot be called by one."

The boy dropped his intense glare in favor of a confused look. The white haired ninja looked at it oddly, murmuring something to himself. Finally, he seemed to resolve his inner conflict, "Pardon me for asking, but why don't you deserve a name?"

It looked away in shame. It did not find it ready to admit to a group of strangers that it would never deserve a name; it did not want to admit that it was a monster. It was pleasant to be treated like a human, even if it knew it was wrong to deceive. It knew it could never be a person, but, it reasoned, it could not very well explain to strangers that it was a cursed member of the Koruhme clan. They would murder it; this was for its own protection, not comfort. The man with white hair seemed to read something in its gaze, "I'll trust your reasons for remaining silent for now. I'm Kakashi Hatake, and these are my students, Sasuke," he pointed at the black haired boy, who grunted a response, "Sakura," the pink haired girl bowed and smiled, "Pleased to meet you.", "And Naru-," the orange haired boy strutted up and shoved his nose in its face, giving his opinion, "I don't like her."

It returned the boy's gaze with an emotionless look of its own. It had expected this to be the case. People never liked it, how could anyone be expected to like a demon? They couldn't manage to accept its existence.

"-to." Kakashi sighed, finishing the name. Sakura facepalmed, and Sasuke, standing up, whacked him on the back of the head, muttering "Idiot."

Naruto turned in anger, shouting at the coolheaded Sasuke behind him, "Who are you calling an idiot, huh? I'm going to become the strongest ninja around. Dattebayo!"

"You're the idiot!" Sakura shouted back, "You just went up to a random stranger to tell them that you don't like them. The smart - no," Sakura started, "the non-idiotic response would be to keep an eye on them and not let them know your suspicions!" She clapped her hands over her mouth, apparently embarrassed by her outburst.

"What's wrong with saying what I think?" Naruto countered, and Sakura just punched him in the arm, "This is all your fault."

"My fault? I-"

Sasuke ignored the fuming Naruto in front of him, choosing instead to examine the new 'guest', and trying to determine whether it was a threat or not. Kakashi pulled Naruto and Sakura apart and sat them down. "That's enough, you two. Now, back to the questions," He sighed at his pupils and looked at it once again, "Where do you come from? Who exactly were you running from? And what reason did they have to capture you?"

"It comes from Kage, the village hidden in the shadows," it responded truthfully, "It doesn't know much about the people chasing after it, but it does know that they were both wearing the same cloaks and were partners. As for why they captured it..." It trailed off, thinking. There were plenty of people who wanted it dead, but captured? Alive? And not Jaggur? "It doesn't know."

Kakashi stroked his mask. It wondered briefly if the man was hiding a beard under there… "Kage, by River country? Interesting…"

Naruto's ears pricked when he heard the village's name, and he asked loudly, "Isn't that by the border where we are supposed to go and-" Naruto was interrupted once again by a solid whack on the head by Sasuke, "Dead last. You don't tell every single stranger you come across about our mission."

It couldn't help but smile as Naruto exploded in anger at Sasuke. It was always nice to see that people still cared for each other, even if it would never be able to experience the same warmth. At first glance, it might seem that the two hated each other, but it knew better; neither of their eyes were filled with true anger or disgust as they yelled. It was far too familiar with that look - it could still remember the expression its mother had given when it had realized what monster she had spawned. But she was dead now. That was the month its father stripped away its name and denied it humanity. It had been twelve. It lowered its eyes. It shouldn't think of that past, the past before twelve, that kind of happy past belonged to people; monsters didn't deserve a happy past. Monsters never did.

Kakashi shook his head, ignoring his immature charges, "Anyway, as Naruto mentioned, we're heading that way anyways, and since we're both going in the same direction, it might be a good idea for you to accompany us."

Shit. It should have lied; it should have told them that it came from a different village. It had thought that they were already far enough from the village to come across someone going towards it, but it was not sure how long it had been unconscious. Now desperate, it tried to convince them otherwise, "It's okay," it pointed to its cast, "It's sure that your mission is very important and it will only slow you down.

Kakashi arched an eyebrow, Sasuke and Naruto stopped glaring at each other to stare at it, and Sakura looked up in curiosity. Kakashi was the first to respond, "Considering that you were already captured once, there's a good possibility that your captors are just waiting for the right moment to swoop in and capture you again. Also," he pointed at its bandaged leg, "in your present condition, you would be no match for them. You'd be taken again in seconds. Besides," the man smiled a terrifyingly kind smile, "the trip should only take two more days."

It did not like this, refusing an offer with that kind of smile would be even more suspicious than agreeing to come. No doubt, if it continued to refuse, the others would suspect something, and continue prodding it with questions until it let something slip and then they would know that it wasn't human, and if it journeyed with them to the border of the village… the villagers might find it. It had no doubt what kind of reception it would receive upon returning. Thinking its options over, it finally agreed.h


	5. Chapter 4

~ It ~

It had hoped that agreeing to accompany the group would lead to fewer suspicions and result in a higher chance of escape. It was wrong. Ever since the caravan had set out again, the blonde boy constantly glared at it, refusing to let it out of his sight. The black haired one watched from the corner of his eye, a bit more subtle and suspicious than the other boy's, and though it had no proof, it was sure that Kakashi watched too. All this watching made discretely directing chakra to healing its leg difficult. It could not risk any of them recognizing the odd signature of chakra.

Sakura was the only one oblivious enough not to have noticed anything odd about its behavior last night. Even this turned out to be unfortunate - she had evidently decided to make up for Naruto's rude behavior by keeping it company and making sure it didn't strain its leg. It could have escaped from watchful eyes by creating some sort of distraction and then running, but not from someone who shadowed it under the pretext of being helpful.

"He's such an idiot!" Sakura complained, awakening it from its inner thoughts, "He thinks he's going to become the greatest ninja ever, but I'm surprised he even managed to become a ninja!"

"Why?" It asked, confused. Was it traditional to insult teammates?

"He couldn't even master the most basic exercises in the Academy. Also," she leaned in and whispered, "he was raised badly. He had no parents…"

"Why?" What parents would dare abandon their children? Even it hadn't been abandoned by her father after he discovered what it was. He had taken away its name, but he hadn't abandoned it. Then again, it wondered what might have happened if he had abandoned it. Maybe then it wouldn't have been forced to kill him. It wondered if it had cried when it killed him. It couldn't remember anymore.

Sakura frowned, "That's the sad part; they died, and no one wanted to take care of Naruto afterwards, but I suppose that makes sense. After all, who would want to look after that goofball?"

It frowned. The explanation's didn't add up. Still, it dared not question. Monsters are not to be seen or heard, and if it continued questioning it would be beaten for its insolence.

Sakura wondered for a few seconds why it had stopped talking, but decided not to pry.

Three hours passed in relative silence, until Kakashi led the group into a clearing and plopped himself down by a tree, pulling out a curious orange book. "I think it's best we stop for now."

"What?!" Naruto whineed, "We've only been walking for three hours."

The man smiled under the mask, turning a few pages. "You may not feel tired, but I think it's different for our guest. She's been walking on a broken leg, and I think there's something wrong with her stomach. I'm surprised she hasn't collapsed from pain."

It glared sharply at Kakashi as the rest of the team turned and stared at it, doing its best not to panic. It had not explained or complained about the pain, and there were no physical markings to indicate pain. How had he known? Its mind flared. What else had the mysterious man noticed? He was dangerous. This entire situation was dangerous. It would have to be careful...

Luckily for it, the team quickly lost interest in this new information. Sasuke sat down at a nearby tree, Sakura following after while incessantly chattering about... something. At this, Naruto grumbled and sat down where he stood, crossed his arms, and pouted. He seemed particularly annoyed at Sasuke, muttering under his breath while sneaking glances at the pair. No doubt he was looking for their weaknesses. This gave it an opportunity. Smiling, it approached the boy silently and tapped him on the shoulder. "Would you like to prove yourself?"

"Gah!" Naruto jumped. "When-why did you sneak up on me like that?" The boy had been too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice its approach.

It kept smiling. People always smiled when they wanted something. "How about the two of us fight?"

Naruto laughed, and poked a finger at his headband. "You realize I got this for a reason, right?"

It continued smiling. Calmly, it maneuvered itself into an offensive stance. It was a bit difficult considering the cast restricted her movement, but it would be more than enough to obliterate the boy. Pulsing out a small bit of chakra in a subtle wave, it became aware of its surroundings. For a small fight, it would not even be required to activate the jutsu hidden in its eye. Besides, they could recognize that ability.

A grin shined on the boy's face. He stood up, brushed the dirt from his pants, and declared, "Don't think I'll go easy on you just because you're a girl."

~ Team 7 ~

Kakashi looked over the two contestants, wondering whether or not he should interrupt the fight, but soon decided against it. He had seen her eyes and he knew Naruto's personality. Any attempt to stop the fight now would only cause the two to fight at a different time, without his supervision, even if her leg was broken. He noticed Sasuke unsuccessfully suppress a shiver.

Sakura frowned. The traveler didn't even have a headband and was injured. She couldn't imagine how a mundane stranger would be able to defeat any ninja, even an idiot like Naruto. Kakashi sighed. Eventually, she would learn that mysterious strangers on the run from kidnappers are rarely mundane.

~ It ~

"Ready?" it asked, shifting its stance.

Before Naruto could open his mouth, it attacked, grabbing him and throwing him across the dirt road. Naruto didn't even realize he had been thrown until after he hit the ground. It watched him after it executed its move, scrutinizing his every movement. It focused as it looked over the boy, at the same time reaching downwards into its own shadow and pulling out a clone. The boy had much to learn before he could call himself a proper ninja; he was too slow, hadn't eliminated unnecessary movements from his Taijutsu, and relied too much on his right leg.

As if to illustrate its point, Naruto, recovering from the throw, only now just became aware of the clone charging towards it from the left, and tried to rolled out of the way to the right - just as it had predicted. Charging, it pulled his orange jacket back and it pinned the boy to the ground, slightly choking him in the process. Naruto, a bit dazed from the sudden change in direction and getting pinned to the ground, failed to notice its fingers heading directly toward his neck's pressure points.

Naruto flailed and clawed at his aggressor, trying in vain to remove the offending hand from his throat. Admirable willpower, but ultimately a useless application. It dismissed the clone and pushed its finger harder against his throat, cutting off his oxygen supply.

If it pushed a little harder it would cleanly sever his blood and oxygen supply, render him unconscious and then dead - it jumped away and dropped into a defensive stance. Another fighter had entered the battle. The white haired ninja had lifted his headband and stared at it with a red eye, a red eye exactly like one of Itachi's. It stiffened. Was he perhaps a member of the same group, dressed differently to deceive it? Shit. It hadn't considered that. It didn't want to have to force the eye jutsu to activate. Frequent use increased the difficulty of keeping up the barrier, but if there was no other choice…

~ Kakashi ~

Despite his aggressive position, Kakashi was not going to attack. He was much more interested in defending Naruto from the stranger. "Sakura," he commanded, "make sure Naruto is still alive."

The stranger backed away from the boy and him. Keeping a wary eye on his him and Sakura as she did so. A shocked Sakura running to check Naruto's pulse and administer medical aid. "Who are you?" Kakashi demanded, Sharingan spinning.

"It already said, it has no name," The stranger looked back, defiance in her eyes. She seemed pleased with herself after beating up a 12 year old boy; pleased but still wary. He found it curious that someone as skilled as her didn't have a name. Most skilled ninja were given a title of some sort in the Bingo book, perhaps she had one of those but chose to not reveal it? Clever, but that strategy would only make sense if the name were famous enough to set off alarms in other people's heads. Was he dealing with one of those types? An A-rank or S-rank ninja who had yet to be stuck in some village's Bingo book? And what was she doing here? The situation was beginning to get out of hand.

He had no doubt that the battle had served some ulterior purpose for her. From what he had seen, he doubted that she took pleasure from beating up inexperienced youngsters. "What rank are you?"

Here was a question the stranger finally decided to answer. Eyeing him over carefully, she replied, "Student."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed; Shadow was a village known for producing high-quality assassins, but when he had last visited their academy the students weren't anywhere near her level of expertise. She had perfect coordination in her attacks, regulated her speed with short controlled bursts of chakra, and had defeated an enemy in record time with barely any use of jutsu. That level of skill was something he had come to expect from opponents of at least Chuunin rank, if not Jounin. Even more curious was her eyes - only killers had such emotionless and and calculating eyes. Where could she have gotten those eyes from?

In Shadow, attacking another student during the test and training was considered treasonous behavior. If a student dared disobey they were hunted by the instructors and killed. For the village of assassins, loyalty to one another and the village was paramount. Nothing in that village should have given her those eyes. Besides, now that he thought of it, wasn't she a bit old to be an academy student?

~ It ~

Why hadn't he attacked yet? If he had been from the same group, he should be attempting to capture it...unless he was looking for the perfect time to strike. It took a few steps back, refusing to let down its played through countless simulations of possible standard attacks he might do, preparing itself to counter all the standard attacks. This was a problematic development, but it regretted nothing. It had done what it had set out to do when it instigated the fight with Naruto. It had determined the condition of its body and gotten a better idea of what the surrounding area was like through chakra pulses.

Naruto interrupted their staring contest, gradually regaining his breath. "I didn't say I was ready yet," he complained through gasps, still suffering from its choke hold. Didn't he know the basics? It shot him a disappointed look, disdainfully replying, "Enemies won't play by the rules or ask you whether you're ready; a good ninja must prepare for anything."

Naruto was about to protest this, but soon gave up. He must have realized it was right.

~ Kakashi ~

Relaxing from his stance and covering his Sharingan again, Kakashi signaled to the other two that they needed to continue on their journey. Naruto was safe and his demon has not emerged, besides...the sooner they reached the shadow village, the sooner he could figure out the mystery behind the strange girl's eyes, and the sooner he could determine her motives.

Until then, could hopefully find some way to secure the safety of his pupils from her. She hadn't identified herself as a direct threat - if she had, then one of them would be dead - but if she chose to attack, he was not sure he would be able to defend all three of them from her without killing her.

He wasn't ready to throw her out and tell her not come back either. That could provoke a hostile response, or it might throw her to the wolves…those supposed kidnappers of hers. He wondered exactly what she had done to merit a kidnapping attempt, and who those kidnappers could be. Given her skill level, her attackers had to be even more formidable, possibly even on his level. Given more than one such attacker, he and his team would have been powerless to stop them from escaping, so where exactly were these attackers? More importantly, why hadn't they come back to finish the job?

~ It ~

It knew that Kakashi and everyone else would watch her more carefully from now on, but it was necessary. It needed to make sure that they would at least think twice before betraying it along with checking its physical condition and surroundings in more depth. From its reading during the battle, it realized that the men with clouds were not within 100 meters of the current clearing. It needed to leave soon. The men with clouds could return at any moment, and if it waited too long, the group would arrive within trapping or scouting range of Shadow. It knew exactly what the village would do if they ever saw it again.

~ Itachi (Elsewhere) ~

Around midday, the two of them reached a pre-arranged contact point. A familiar shadowed figure was there to greet them, "There is to be a problem concerning the demon."

Itachi began to explain, "The two tailed beast seems to be stronger than first expected, and she managed to escape from us just as we were heading back to the hideout to perform the ritual. She will not escape again."

A smile crossed the shadowed face, "I wasn't talking about that." The subordinates stood quietly, patiently awaiting his explanation. "Apparently, the girl you're chasing does not have the two tailed cat demon."

Kisame frowned, "That's impossible, her irises changed when she was fighting me. Same thing happens with all the other containers when they rely on their demo-"

"Nevertheless," the figure interrupted, annoyed at the contradiction, "She is not the two tailed cat demon; there was a miscommunication. The cat demon was discovered in the village hidden in clouds."

"Should we go fetch that one instead?" Itachi asked. He didn't enjoy being sent out to make one girl's life miserable, especially if it was unnecessary. Then again, she might be better off with the Leaf ninja than alone in the forest. That much isolation couldn't be healthy.

The apparition considered the thought. "No, it's best if we wait a while before capturing the demons. That way, we can do the ritual immediately after capturing them, instead of imprisoning them for a while and allowing possible escape or rescue attempts. Besides, we have an information leak."

"A leak," Kisame drawled, "Did we fail to kill someone? And what kind of idiot allowed the leak to get information on us?"

"No idiot," the shadowy hologram blurred, "Orochimaru got his hands on some documents. I don't think we need to worry about him spreading information about us to anyone, but we don't know how much he has seen. Better to put a hold on our demon collecting operations for now. I have a separate task for you."

"Kill and skin the snake?" Itachi offered. He didn't exactly enjoy Orochimaru's existence. The snake had been his partner some time back and had always expressed an unnatural interest in his eyes and brought up dissection too often for comfort. Itachi had thoroughly beaten the snake the one time he had attacked him, and a chance to hunt him down would be welcome.

"No. The girl you were chasing must have been very strong if she managed to escape the two of you. She could be a valuable asset to the organization."

Itachi glared, but said nothing. He did not want to deal with a brat. Perverts who wanted to skin him or kill him were one thing, children were utterly bothersome. Besides, he reasoned, she had done nothing to deserve a spot in Akatsuki - she had only managed to escape because of that ninja team. Still, he would not contradict Leader.

As if to clarify his doubts, Leader explained why he was interested in the creature, "She's the last of the Koruhme clan."

Itachi's eyes widened with curiosity. He had heard about the clan of assassins, but he, along with the rest of the Elemental Nations, had thought they were all dead. The clan was said to have killed itself off years ago; a Koruhme had not been spotted for decades. If she was of the Koruhme, that could explain why she referred to her "demon" as a panther - the clan had been known for their bloodline limit, only present every third generation; a transformation of the pupils more commonly referred to as "cat eyes" or "battle eyes." It overlaid a strong illusion of slitted, cat-like pupils over the user's eyes..A stronger illusion than rumored, Itachi thought, since not even the Mangekyou could see through it.

These eyes gifted and cursed its user. It was said that the member who obtained such eyes could perform metal manipulation of the highest degree, and that the eyes would give them a boost to their physical abilities. All it costed a user was their mind - the very power that allowed cursed members of the family to bend metal to their whims would eventually burn away their sanity, and frequent users usually lost all rational thought by the age of 15 or 16. This would subsequently release every mental and physical constraint humans put on chakra usage and make them incredibly strong, similar to the Eight Gates, but it also turned them into killing machines. Users became animals who killed for the pure pleasure of slaughter; if something moved, they killed it. They could not be reasoned with. Upon transformation, the user still has access to all skills learned while alive and sane, muscle memory and procedural memory remaining accurate even after the loss of higher brain functions.

"I see you understand now. I want you to recruit her."

Right, recruit a dangerous creature that could randomly go insane with uncontrollable bloodlust…wait, what was he thinking? She'd fit in _perfectly_ with the others. "And if she's lost enough of her humanity that she's a liability?"

The apparition waved his hand. "I'll judge her stability myself; if she's found wanting, I'll get rid of her myself."


End file.
